Archive for the ‘Rant’ Tag

I’m annoyed by the condescending tone used by Greg Wyshynski when he talks about the shootout. I know he hates it, and that’s fine, but he doesn’t need to keep painting the fans who actually enjoy it (like me) as complete morons who don’t know anything about hockey. Here is how he started his latest rant on the topic:

“Let’s get one thing straight: There are a great many NHL fans that enjoy the shootout in the same way one enjoys, say, a pie fight to end an old Hollywood comedy.

But if these same people believe the shootout is a satisfactory way to determine the victor after 65 minutes of a team competition, there’s a very good chance they also enjoyed a screening of “Vampires Suck” this weekend, too … and probably shouldn’t be allowed to operate large mechanical devices.”

Oh thanks for enlightening us with your great wisdom M. Wyshynski. Now, excuse me while I go back to eating crayons.

(yeah, sorry EP, it’s not really just you actually, but well…) The guy has only been here for 4 months. He’s an experienced coach, and he’s not the only reason why this team is disappointing. I think it’s waaaaay to early to even consider firing him. I’m not always sold on his moves, and I’m not sure I love the way his teams play, but that’s the direction the habs went for. Now, at least give the guy some time to really implement his work.

2. Yet another installment of the language issue:

Gauthier has been here for half a day, and people are complaining everywhere about the way he was picked, and about Boivin. The reason? “Boivin said he hired a French-speaking guy because his language is important! Why can’t he pick the best guy overall? Why does he prefer a French loser to a wathever-his-language competent guy? Whaaa whaa whaaaa!” Give me a break. If you still don’t understand that the habs have to at least say stuff like that to appease the media, I can’t help you. Could anyone really prove that the habs chose their new GM over a more qualified candidate just because of his language? That’s bullshit. Who were the others supposedly better candidates to begin with? Ken Holland and Lou Lamoriello are great GMs. But you know what, they already have jobs. I hear Mike Milbury was available. Is that what you wanted? Name me just another available GM who has experience, already knows the habs organization well and could fit in smoothly in the midst of a season as Gauthier will, and I’ll shut up. The only possibly available experienced GM I can think of is Dale Tallon, who is now Senior Adviser of Hockey Operations for the Blackhawks. I don’t know if he does speak French, but he’s from Rouyn Noranda, Quebec, so I assume he could at least speak a little bit of Frenglish. If they really wanted Tallon, they could have played the “he’s from Quebec” card to appease the bigot faction of the French media. So I’d be surprised to learn the Habs picked Gauthier over someone like Tallon just because the former is francophone.

As long as the Habs play in Montreal, the language issue will at least be taken into account when hiring a GM. And rightly so. Should it be the first criterion? Hell no. But is it actually the first criterion used by the Habs? I really doubt it, no matter what Boivin says to please the media.

I’m not for an all-French Habs team or franchise. It’s a ridiculous notion. But I don’t think this is what we’re seeing. I’m not even arguing for more or for less francophones. I just think the habs can’t completely ignore the issue. And actually, I think the Habs are not doing too bad in that regard. They’re criticized by some people in the French media because they don’t have enough francophone players, and they’re criticized in parts of the English media and blogs for paying too much attention to language when hiring someone. When both sides are complaining, maybe you’re actually doing a good job! ;)

Allowing 6 goals from the Rangers, who hadn’t scored in their last 147 minutes at the Madison Square Garden? check

Allowing a PP goal from the fucking Rangers who were 0 for 28 in their last PP attempts? check

Hearing the freaking Rangers announcers rave about how great the Rangers were playing while all I could see was how pathetic the habs were? check (Seriously, any team would have crushed the Habs yesterday night. The Rangers really shouldn’t get too cocky because of that win.)

Getting the sarcastic ole ole ole chant from Rangers fans? check (I’m not blaming them for that, I love the ole ole ole chant because it pisses everyone else, so of course when things turn bad we’ll hear it. But it still sucks.)

That was absolutely pathetic, and I’m fucking pissed. It’s not a good sign when all I’m hoping for during the last 20 minutes of a game is to see Laraque come out of the bench to punch any guy from the other team in the face. I’m not a fights lover at all, but I seriously wished the habs had turned this into a fucking goon show last night.

Lately, I had somehow forgotten how annoying the Rangers could be. Thanks for last night, Montreal, now I hate the Rangers again with all my heart.

Yesterday I read this post from EP at Shifts and Sets about the infamous pink jerseys, and it inspired me a little rant about some marketing trends of the NHL.

I completely agree with EP about those pink jerseys. I think it’s a rather unfortunate way to try to appeal to the female hockey fans. But I think what bothers me about this is actually not so much the assumption that women who like hockey need pink stuff (I mean, who doesn’t know women love pink, flowers and Johnny Depp? Duh!), but rather the way the nhl looks ready to attempt anything to grab cash. In the same way, I really dislike all this St Patrick marketing (Yes, Puck Daddy wrote about it this week. Did you actually believe I could think of original topics by myself?) I know some people find it fun, and after all, why not? but I almost feel insulted that the nhl believes I won’t notice it’s such a lazy attempt to get my money.

I know the nhl is a business. But the business of the nhl is hockey. Not selling overpriced and hideous carpets or uh… stuff. Yeah, the nhl is under a lot of pressure to make as much money as possible just to remain competitive in an entertainment market filled with other sports leagues and other leisure industries. But… that’s not what I want to think about when I think hockey. Call me a dreamer, or simply a moron, but that’s the way I feel.

Actually, it goes even further than that. I think I have a problem with the whole nhl shop.

Seeing them selling the exact same products for the entire league and just slapping a differentlogo for eachfanbase is lame. I don’t want to feel the same as a Pens or a Flames fan. I want to think my team is special. And in the same way, I don’t want to have a green or pink shirt with my team’s logo on it, if those are not, you know… the colors of my team. Because it just negates the fact that I think my team is unique. What’s the point if the merchandise doesn’t even include the team colors anymore?

This makes me think about a somewhat similar trend going on in soccer football. Like in hockey, football teams used to have a home and away jersey. But unlike hockey, the away jersey was traditionally used only if the home team had similar colors than the away team. Now, almost every team uses a third jersey, often with completely wacky colors, that they wear for the european cups or sometimes the national cups too, regardless of the home team colors. Those third jerseys have usually bold designs, supposed to make them trendy. Of course, this means that most of them are simply awful. Here are some infamous examples from the recent seasons:

Liverpool. Colors: red

Lyon. Colors: blue, red and white

Marseille. Colors: white and light blue

Marseille again. Ugh.

And finally, Paris. Colors: blue and red.

Needless to say (but I’ll say it nevertheless), this is a trend that I really despise. Especially since all of those masterpieces are invariably subtly altered after each season, to sell, sell, and SELL more and more overpriced jerseys.

I don’t want to see the nhl becoming anything like this. One of the things I really like about the nhl is the fact that the jerseys have remained untouched by advertisement, and teams seem to relatively respect their own colors (except for this black third jerseys league-wide trend). I hope this doesn’t change.

I know this rant won’t make any difference, but whatever, it’s always nice to sound like a cranky old man.

Just so you know, I wrote this in French, because the article I comment in this post was written in French. But I wrote an English traduction of this post too, because I really wanted to make sure everybody could read it. You can find the English version just under this post, here.

Well, it’s time for me to talk about a subject that’s important for me, as you probably guessed from the title of the blog. The Soft European is obviously my own little response to the clichés frequently carried in some media (English and French) on the European players. Be warned, it’s gonna be a loooong post…

These clichés, of course, are especially used when things go bad. So in the current period, it was only a matter of time before it would resurface. And there it is. Here is the wonderful editorial written by Jeremy Filosa on the website of the CKAC radio, entitled More Quebecers, to prevent indifference. (The article was written in French, I have tried to translate it in English, but if you want more accurate quotes, go here)

But after reading some of the All Star weekend coverage around the Internet, here is apparently the kind of things I should write to be trendy:

“The All Star Game is a COMPLETE JOKE, it’s a meaningless game, and I couldn’t care less about it! The voting thing was an utter SCANDAL, because Gary Bettman is too moronic to see that stupid cheating fans in Montreal and Anaheim used scripts to send their players to the game. Komisarek is clearly not deserving to be an all star, and I’m OUTRAGED that Ovechkin isn’t in the starting lineup. But really, I don’t mind, because this is only a meaningless game. And now, Alex Kovalev is named captain of the eastern team? What?? Are you FREAKING kidding me? This must be a joke! Oh look, now all the good players are faking injuries to avoid going to the game! They should be ashamed, this is an INSULT to the fans. But hahaha! it’ll teach stupid Gary Bettman! Fortunately, this game is totally meaningless, so I really don’t care at all. Wait, what? there won’t be any red wings? Oh my god, this is such a travesty of an all star game! Dear Lord, Bettman dared to suspend Lidstrom and Datsyuk because they’re not coming! What a JERK! Ah Ah! Look at Crosby who’s going in Montreal just to please Gary fucking Bettman, boy I hate him, he’s such an ass-licking whiner! Now I hope my players won’t get injured in that joke of a MEANINGLESS game!”

There’s whining all over the place about anything related to the ASG, and I’m really fed up with this.

OF COURSE it’s a meaningless game, that’s the whole fucking point, people! This game is supposed to be a way for the nhl to thank the fans, to showcase the best talents in the league, and to make tons of money. And this is just what they do. That’s why when the best players refuse to go to the game, or have suspect day to day injuries just before the all star game, the league is pissed, and penalizes them. I don’t see anything wrong with this. Either Lidstrom and Datsyuk are really hurt, and they wouldn’t have played the next game anyway, in which case their sanction is void, or they are faking injuries to miss the all star game, and I think it’s normal for the league to take exception to this kind of thing.

I know Gary Bettman is a jerk, everyone agrees on this. But it would be nice if once in a while, people would actually stop bitching about any decision made by the nhl. The All Star Game is supposed to be a fun break during the season, a rare event where we have the opportunity to see the greatest players alive play together, something that is otherwise only possible on video games. So yes, I’m excited by the fact that maybe I’ll get to see Lecavalier, Malkin, Ovechkin, Kane, Thornton, Iginla, Bouwmeester, Chara, Boyle, Souray, Price and Luongo on the ice at the same time. ESPECIALLY for a meaningless game where nothing prevents them from being creative and having fun, in front of an excited crowd.

Well, to be fair, there’s one thing I think people should whine about: Simple Plan, a band who so cleverly titled their last album “No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls”, will perform during the second intermission. They suck.